Christmas tidings

Hello Again! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! We had a nice quiet week around here, visiting with friends, eating treats, and watching snow fall. It was lovely!

I don't really have much to say, so I thought I'd just post a couple of pictures, and you could pretend they are all worth 1000 words. :)

We didn't get our wreath for outside until Christmas Eve, so it was FREE! Sometimes it pays to be late! I decorated it with some Christmas decorations we ordered off Ebay last year, that were sent to Yo Video instead. They arrived this year just in time. And some holly that Jai was given for Christmas by a woman he drives.


I made this tray as a custom job for a local woman who saw our work at the Christmas show. She liked it so much, she ordered another one on the spot! (that was a pretty nice feeling!) I like it, too, and think I might make one for myself as well :)

There's Jai in the kitchen with the wreath that Errol's sister, Cynthia, made us for Christmas. Nice job Cynthia!

The most popular Christmas present this year is definitely the hand-knit Catnip Mice that we picked up for the cats. They couldn't wait until Christmas, though, and dug them out of their hiding places several times before I wisened up and stuck them in a drawer. Emma likes to snuggle hers, and Jane has already ripped the guts out of hers.

Brandon and Jo had us over to their house for Christmas Dinner, with Philip and Angela. Their house was very festive, and the food was amazing! The next best thing to Grandma's.


Our apple firewood is pretty fun to look at. I couldn't resist these amazing fungus things, and took about twenty different pictures of them. The whole log was covered in them, all different shapes and sizes. Anyway, I had to use at least one of them, since I took so many!

And outside the house is lots and lots of snow. I love going out in the backyard, and seeing who has been visiting. And it really makes the house bright when everything outside is white. It's great during the day, but a little bit annoying at night, because I like it to be really dark when I'm sleeping. We might have to get heavier curtains! I would have thought it would be brighter in the summer, but it really isn't. No wonder people suffer from light deficiency when they move to Victoria!

And finally, Santa! We made it up to the Goulden Christmas party, and got to sit on Santa's lap and everything. It was pretty fun, and, as Jai says, he was a very PG-13 kind of Santa.

How to know you're a Local...

Hello! Time is flying this week! We've just about caught up on our Christmas orders. The last two days have been a bit of a struggle for me, as I have been bitten by the Lazy Bug, and haven't felt like doing anything but sitting in front of the fire. But, alas, I can't slack off just yet.
We're in the middle of a totally beautiful snow storm right now. It's like something from a Christmas card out there. Unfortunately I leant our camera to Sarah, to get some good shots in her Etsy store. So you'll just have to take a moment and picture it in your head...a heavy white blanket of snow covering the empty streets, and big lazy white flakes floating down over everything. Lovely!!!


We did take a bit of time to get our tree up. We got the biggest tree they had this year - hooray for high ceilings! And the reflections on the tin are just gorgeous! So far, we have put only unbreakable ornaments on the tree, just because we aren't sure about the cats, but it's been a couple of days, and so far there has been no interest shown by either one. I think I'll give it a couple more days!

We've also had time to fit in some visiting. Our friend Andre organized a texas hold'em poker tournament, where all the money went to the charity of the winner's choice. That was pretty fun, it came down to Brandon and I on the last hand, but the blinds were so high, that we both had to go "all in" and he won. Oh well, he donated the money to the families the local school is sponsoring, so it was a good cause.
And we had a delicious dinner and excellent company at Philip and Angela's house the other night. Last year, Christmas was so relaxed because we didn't know anyone yet, and neither one of us had jobs yet. This year we're all over the place! I guess that's what happens. It certainly has been a very busy year. But an excellent one!
The other day I knew I was officially a "local" when the fellow who runs the grocery store let me come in after hours and just take a bag of cat food. "Pay for it tomorrow," he said. Home sweet home.

Season's Greetings

Hello!

It's that time of year...the Bridgetown Christmas tree is lit again!
Last weekend we had our final show of the year in Annapolis Royal, which is about 20 minutes from our house. It was my favourite show. It was really fun, because we shared a corner with our friends Carolyn and Sarah, and because we knew a lot of the people that were coming through, and it was really relaxed and social. There is such a large number of really talented Craftspeople in the area, considering how many people actually live here. It's exciting to be a part of it. Here's a pic of our booth, with a little bit of Carolyn's beautiful work peeking in at the corner. She's got her own web-site at CarolynLowe.ca.

Since then we have been busy trying to keep up with work. Aside from working for other people, we have been kept hopping with orders off of Etsy. I don't know now how we could live without it, it truly is such an amazing resource.

The weather has been very snowy all week. The roads in Nova Scotia are kept really well, around here at least, so we don't have to worry about that, which is nice. And the snow is breathtakingly beautiful. The road I take to Cottage Woodworkers brings me up over the North Mountain to the Bay of Fundy. It's about a 12 minute drive, but on the way there, I get amazing views of the Bay, and on the way home I get incredible valley views. I could hardly believe it on the way home today, as I came around the corner to see a view through the park, across the snow-laden picnic tables, through the snow-covered birch trees, to a panorama of the snow-covered Valley. I almost forgot how incredible the view was, when all the trees have lost their leaves. Too bad I didn't have my camera!

Yesterday we took the day to head to Halifax with our friends Brandon and Jo. We got a bunch of errands done, I spent an obscene amount of money at Lee Valley, and we just relaxed and had fun. Brandon and Jo took us to Pete's Frootique, which is this super fun specialty grocery store. They have all sorts of different things from all over the world, so we bought some treats for under the tree. Couldn't resist trying a couple of the chip flavours first, though. How about Turkey and Stuffing, Cheese and Pickle, or Ham and Mustard? All three ended up with two (somewhat greasy) thumbs up.

Today is the anniversary of the Halifax Explosion, and there have been some amazing stories on the CBC. I was just listening to a 103 yr.old man who was 13 and living in Halifax at the time. He had an incredible memory, and an almost unbelievable story. Although this particular piece of history is extremely tragic, I love living in a place that is so full of history and stories. It makes me feel like a small piece of a very large timeline.